To See Her Smile
by neuxue
Summary: A re-telling of the story of Zeus and Semele. Semele knows exactly what she's asking. Rating for non-explicit sex, possibly disturbing imagery, and implied mentions of past instances of non-consensual sex. Character death as per the original myth.


**_Author's Note_**_: I want it to be on the record that this is not meant to portray, in any way, shape, or form, a perfect or ideal romance. Zeus is NOT a perfect romantic hero. He has done some Very Bad Things in his past, and those should not be ignored, nor is it my intention to ignore them. Semele, however, is her own woman and makes her own choices. _

* * *

**To See Her Smile**

_A sacrifice at one of his countless altars calls him, and Zeus slips into the form of a giant eagle, soaring through the skies at a pace no true bird could hope to match. Circling over the altar, he sees her. A young priestess, her devotion almost tangible to his acute senses as she slaughters the giant bull and speaks her prayers. She is beautiful, but Zeus has known many beautiful young women. He is about to turn away, to ride the current of the air back towards Olympus, when she looks up. He abandons the thermal he was soaring on and spirals downwards, caught in the depth of her eyes. In her mask of absolute devotion, they betray the emotions she has hidden deep inside herself, where no one but a god could see._

_Unable to look away from those eyes, he feels the swirling mix of emotions but it is the loneliness that calls out to him, overwhelming his senses. A loneliness so intense he cannot understand how she has hidden it so long._

_Suddenly he wants nothing more than to ease that pain, to make her smile, to light up those eyes. It is not the prayer the priestess has spoken, but it is the one he will grant._

* * *

Semele takes several steps back as the eagle plummets towards her in a tight and seemingly barely controlled spiral. At the last second it opens its wings to break its fall, coming to land gracefully on top of the carcass of the bull she has just slaughtered on Zeus's altar. For a moment, neither she nor the majestic bird moves, as she stares into its eyes – eyes that carry far too much intelligence even for a bird of prey. A faint suspicion begins to dawn in the back of her mind and her eyes widen in amazement, but before she can say or do anything, the bird launches itself once more into the skies with an unearthly cry.

She remains rooted to the spot for several moments, following the path of the eagle's flight as it soars in wide circles high above her.

"Zeus" she whispers once more, looking not at the altar this time but into the sky, "accept this sacrifice."

Then, slowly, she turns and makes her way toward the river to cleanse herself of the animal's blood.

* * *

_"Zeus, accept this sacrifice." The words reach his ears as clearly as if she had been standing in front of him. He knows she is referring to the bull that lies on the altar, but in his mind he sees the image of her eyes, so full of pain and loneliness, set into a mask of emotionless devotion, and he wonders if she knows the true meaning of her words._

* * *

She removes her bloodstained clothes and walks slowly into the river, trailing her fingertips on the surface and watching as the current carries away the blood of the animal she has sacrificed. She submerges herself in the water, trying to appreciate its cool touch but she can't shake the feeling that she is being watched. She thinks back to the eagle that had alighted on the altar and a shiver runs through her. She looks over her shoulder but there is no one there.

And then, suddenly, there is. She stares in amazement and shock as he approaches her. His footfalls make no sound, it is as though he has simply melted out of the grove of trees by the river's edge.

He is barely clothed, and she allows her eyes to linger for a fraction of a second longer than she knows she should. Then with a start, she remembers herself and swiftly turns her back in an attempt to preserve a scrap of modesty and hide the blush that is spreading across her cheeks.

"I am sorry to have startled you, Lady."

She tries to compose herself, combing out her long, dark hair with fingers that tremble slightly despite her best efforts.

She does not hear him enter the water, but suddenly she feels another pair of hands gently working the strands of her wet hair, brushing softly against the skin of her back. She shivers, and turns slowly until she is facing him, standing in his arms with hardly even the river between them.

She should step back, cover herself, run away. But her legs won't obey her halfhearted command.

* * *

_"Who are you?" The girl asks. Zeus allows himself a small smile._

_"I think you know the answer to that," he says. She nods slowly._

_"What do you want?" she asks in a whisper. It takes a huge amount of effort to prevent his gaze from raking over her exposed body. He has known many beautiful women, but he has rarely needed to exhibit restraint._

_"I think you know that answer too – " he begins, and she looks up at him, meeting his eyes in something like shock. So close, the turmoil within them threatens to overwhelm him once more, but he manages to maintain control. "—but it's not what I want that matters right now."_

_"But…" her emotionless mask has dissolved and he can read the confusion in her face, as easily as the unspoken end to her protest._

But you're Zeus.

_"What I want doesn't matter," he says again, "right now, what's important is what _you _want."_

_For a moment, neither of them moves. Then she closes her eyes, but not before he can see the flicker of desire, of need, that flits across them. She tilts her face slightly towards him, just slightly, and he moves one hand to cup the back of her neck, twining into her still-wet hair. Then he waits until she moves – until she brings her lips to meet his, and reaches her arms around his neck, and takes the last step forwards – before he pulls her closer to him until the river that flowed between them is forced to find a new path._

* * *

Semele makes her way slowly back along the path, combing her hair and smoothing her clothes; trying to make herself look less as though she has just been ravished by a god. But she is distracted, remembering his fingers in her hair, his surprisingly gentle hands across her body, his less gentle insistence – or was it compliance? She is not entirely sure whose desire was being fulfilled. _What I want doesn't matter. Right now, what's important is what you want_, he had said. Is this what she wants? She stops suddenly as she realises that she doesn't actually know the answer. She is trying to search through her own desires and wishes – the ones she has hidden beneath her mental veil, the veil that keeps her face impassive and her emotions under control – when she realises that she has never been asked what she wants before.

* * *

_Zeus returns to the skies but circles widely, lazily, in lieu of returning directly to Olympus. Hera will be waiting for him there, and he knows he cannot return now, not with his eyes still full of Semele, his thoughts occupied by her unspoken prayers – unspoken even to herself. Hera cannot know. Zeus knows what would happen then, and he knows that he must protect the priestess at all costs. Were Hera to learn of Semele, Zeus would never succeed in making her smile, no matter how hard he tried. She would already be too broken. Never, in all his countless years, has Zeus learned to repair the damage his wife can cause. And he has never learned to cope with the subsequent guilt. Because it never is Hera's fault, really. It's his own._

* * *

Semele is distracted in her duties at the temple. Where she was once purposeful, stoic, proud and obedient she now performs all her tasks as though she is sleepwalking. Sometimes she stops in the middle of sweeping the floors, or carrying water, or lighting the candles, holding the burning match in her hand and gazing off into the distance, lost in reverie, brought back to earth only by the sound of someone shouting her name to warn her of the flame that is beginning to lick her fingers. She is slow in the mornings now. For years she was always the first one awake; she would be washed and clothed before the other girls had hardly begun to stir. These mornings she would comb her hair slowly, her eyes focused on a memory, recalling how Zeus's fingers met hers, how he stroked her hair as they kissed, tangled it as they made love.

In her more lucid moments, she hears the others begin to whisper. _Proud Semele_, they would say, _not so much better than us after all. Always so modest, ha. She must think we don't know._

Semele tries to ignore them, tried to keep her chin up, shoulders back, face impassive. She has always been aloof, apart from the others. She is accustomed to conversations occurring around her but never including her. The only real difference now is the tone.

* * *

_Zeus avoids Hera, avoids meeting her eyes. This is nothing new for either of them – marriage grows tedious after the first few millennia. He does not doubt that she knows what he is doing. As long as she doesn't know who he's doing it with, Semele will remain safe. So he leaves Olympus whenever he can, soaring out of the pantheon on his eagle's wings, floating on the air currents that always seem to carry him back to the same place. He circles the altar for hours, waiting for the priestess, waiting for a glimpse of her eyes, but dreading it at the same time. He wonders how a human girl can survive the emotions that make him tremble. She is stronger than the others he has known._

_After days of watching the altar, he is rewarded by the sight of the young woman leading a young calf to the altar. He dives downwards with a cry and sees a flicker of astonishment and the shadow of something akin to excitement in her eyes as he lands. He casts off the eagle's shape and turns to Semele_

_"Let the calf free. I would never think to request another sacrifice from you. You have given more than enough already."_

* * *

Semele pauses, uncertain of how to interpret his words.

"I…I'll just go, then," she finally says, turning slowly and fighting to keep her face closed, her eyes dry.

"I was not asking you to leave," he says from behind her, softly. It is not a command but she stops and turns around once more.

"But you said…" she begins, puzzled. He shakes his head, and for a moment she catches a glimpse of something almost like sadness in his sculpted face.

"I was just referring to the calf," he says, reassuring. "You do not need to bring a sacrifice in order to come here. Simply calling my name will suffice."

"Zeus," she whispers softly, looking up at him.

"I'm here," he replies even more softly, drawing her in to a close embrace, his hands in her hair, his lips brushing against her ear and then her mouth. The kiss deepens and she can still hardly believe that this is Zeus, that she's kissing a god. Moments later she pulls away breathlessly.

"Maybe…shouldn't we move away from the altar?" She asks in response to his inquisitive look. He only laughs in reply and lifts her slightly so she is sitting on the altar – his altar. She hesitates only for a moment before winding her fingers into his hair and wrapping her legs around his waist as they pick up where they left off.

* * *

_Lying naked on the altar, Semele looks almost like a virgin sacrifice. But Zeus has already made sure she is no longer a virgin, and he will not allow her to become a sacrifice. She is not – shame washes over him as he thinks the name – Leda. This is her choice as much as it is his. He is a god, but he will not take from her what is not offered._

* * *

Semele no longer tries to hide her secret from the other priestesses. The next weeks pass by in a blur of her ordinary temple duties, which she fulfils mindlessly, thinking only of her next visit to the altar, to the grove of trees by the river, to her god. The others know she is seeing someone, but none of them suspect the full truth. She does not tell them, and they continue to despise her. And for once, Semele doesn't mind. For once, she has a way to assuage the loneliness that has been an inevitability in her life ever since she was given up to the temple by parents that refused to admit they had borne a daughter. For the other girls, it is an honour. For Semele, it is simply life. But now it is not all her life. Now there is someone else, someone who has not abandoned her – despite all the stories of his liaisons with mortals. Someone she can talk to, someone who will listen – another trait the stories fail to mention.

For the first time, Semele knows what it means to anticipate something, to look forward eagerly to those stolen hours in the grove by the river, to feel the excitement flow through her at the thought of meeting her lover. She wonders vaguely if it would be the same with someone else – not a god, just a mortal who happened to love her.

* * *

_Hera's suspicion increases with each passing day, but though Zeus knows, he cannot cease his visits to Semele, cannot hide the fact that he is falling in love with the girl he once vowed to make smile. He had gone to her on a compulsion he had taken for pity, knowing that his success would imply her love for him. But he never expected to reciprocate it. Zeus has known many women, but has loved very few. Love is Aphrodite's domain, fidelity is Hera's. He, Zeus is beginning to realise, is not so different from other men. He simply fulfils his desires more easily, courtesy of being a god. He has often wondered if no one has ever truly loved Semele, if this is the reason behind the sadness in her eyes. But now he wonders if he himself has ever truly loved anyone. And in realising the answer, he understands why Hera is so furious – and at the same time why she has not yet acted. She has never felt more than passing irritation at his previous relations, the ones that meant nothing. But now she sees him falling in love, and for the first time, Hera is hurt. She is angry, she is vengeful, she is annoyed. But primarily, he realises with a flash of pity, she is in pain._

_Because after spending millennia at his side, she finally sees him fall in love. Just not with her._

* * *

'Semele.'

Semele is startled at the sound of her name, spoken quietly by someone just beyond the trees of the grove. She is unaccustomed to anyone's presence here, except for that of Zeus. He has just left; she can just barely make out his eagle's form soaring high above her, back to Olympus.

"Yes?" Semele calls out, her voice shaking only slightly, as she quickly pulls on her clothes and tries to run her fingers through her tangled hair.

A girl, slightly younger than Semele, steps into the grove. Her eyes widen slightly as she takes in Semele's dishevelled appearance. Semele knows what she must look like, but makes no effort to hide it. Her deep blush is her only concession to any remnant of shame she feels. The girl – a young priestess at the temple, Semele assumes based on her clothing and the fact that she knows Semele's name – smiles conspiratorially.

"I was…worried about you," the girl says, "you seemed…well, like you needed someone to talk to, I guess. But I suppose I shouldn't have worried," she adds with a smirk. Semele returns the smile, her cheeks still furiously red.

"Thank you," she says.

"So…" the girl begins, "who was it? Anyone I would know?"

* * *

_As soon as Zeus returns to Olympus, he knows something is wrong. Hera is not there waiting to berate or interrogate him. He asks several of the other gods and goddesses, but none of them can enlighten him as to the whereabouts of his wife. That can only mean one thing. She has gone to get her revenge. He is suddenly filled with a panic so strong it shocks him. He has to find Semele, has to warn her._

_Zeus launches himself from Olympus, once more winging his way towards the temple in his eagle's form. He has only been away from Semele for a few moments, it seems. He hopes he is right in thinking that is far too little time for Hera to act, hopes that he will not arrive too late. But he fears that he is wrong._

_He slows as he reaches their grove, and begins to circle. It doesn't take him long to spot Semele, seated by the river, deep in conversation with what appears to be just another young priestess. But Zeus can see through Hera's disguise immediately, and he knows he is too late. An inexpressible feeling of sorrow and loss and pain fills him, and a keening cry rips from his throat. Both women look up at the unearthly sound, both recognise the eagle immediately. And this time, Semele's eyes are not the only ones brimming with intense and complex emotions._

* * *

Semele has just finished telling the younger priestess – after some initial hesitation – the truth about her lover, when she hears a cry from the heavens that strikes something deep inside of her, and she looks up immediately to see a giant eagle circling over her, crying out in something like despair. She cannot imagine what would have caused him to make such a sound – or even why he would have returned so quickly – until she looks back at the other priestess, intending to feign a confused but dismissive shrug and continue the conversation. But something in the other girl's eyes stops her. The girl's expression is not unlike her own, and her eyes…there is something unnatural about them. Like Zeus's eyes, they seem to contain far more than any mortal's ever could.

Semele draws in a shocked breath as realisation dawns on her. For several moments, neither of them speaks.

"He loves you, you know," Hera finally says, a single tear falling from her immortal's eyes.

* * *

_Zeus has no real option but to leave – there is nothing more he can do, short of confronting Hera directly, in front of Semele. He hardly entertains the idea for longer than a second, knowing that the sight of two such powerful gods clashing with each other would kill her. He cries out again to the wind with frustration and pain, for having failed to protect the girl he loves from the inevitable revenge of the goddess he should. _

* * *

Semele is unsure how to respond, so she remains quiet until Hera collects herself with a quick shake of her head. When Hera speaks again there is no sign of the pain, the vulnerability she had allowed to escape just moments before.

"What did he do to seduce you? Promise you the earth and sky, and everything in between? Promise you all the gold and riches you could ever hope for? Or was it enough for him to stand there looking like the most beautiful man in the world and your legs just fell open for him?"

Semele is taken aback by the harsh tone of Hera's words, the underlying accusation, and yet she is compelled to answer, and to do so as honestly as possible. She thinks back to that first meeting, when he ran his fingers through her hair and kissed away the pain of her loneliness as they made love in the river where she washed away the traces of the sacrifice she had made.

* * *

_Zeus sits upon his throne at Olympus, turning a thunderbolt over and over in his hands – the only reminder that he is not in fact powerless. There is nothing he can do to stop whatever plan Hera has put in motion. He has never been able to outwit her, never been able to forestall her. He wants to unleash his guilt and fury and pain upon the world, wants to rip open the sky with thunder and ignite it with his lightning, but he knows it would be futile._

_A cool hand touches his shoulder gently, but Zeus does not look up._

_"You love her, don't you?" his brother Poseidon asks softly. Zeus does not respond. "Zeus…you're not going to like this, but…she's mortal. She'll die eventually. You're going to have to give her up sometime."_

_"I know she's going to die at some point," Zeus replies tonelessly, "I just wanted her to smile first."_

* * *

"He gave me a choice," Semele says finally. "He listened to me. To what I wanted. When I was..." she hesitates for a moment, unsure of opening herself to a goddess she has angered. "When I'm with him I feel…like I'm actually alive. Like I'm a human being, like I have thoughts and feelings and wants that matter." She cannot interpret the expression on Hera's face as she finishes softly, "everyone else I've known seems to forget that."

When Hera speaks again her voice sounds different, and Semele is shocked to see the glimmer of withheld tears in her eyes.

"Are you certain of that?" Hera asks. "You do not know him as I do. How certain are you that he truly cares what you want? That he will not break his promise to get what he wants? How do you know he won't hurt you? How can you be sure that he won't discard you without a second thought as soon as someone else captures his interest? How can you trust his word?"

The restraint in Hera's voice threatens to crack, and Semele knows the goddess is not only speaking to her.

"He wouldn't," she says in a voice barely above a whisper. She has heard the stories, of course. But she cannot equate that Zeus with the god that loved her in the grove by the river.

"Wouldn't he? Let me tell you a story," Hera says, her voice cool and even once more. "Let me tell you about a girl named Leda."

* * *

_Zeus does not notice when his brother leaves, but he senses Hera's presence as soon as she enters the room. He does not acknowledge her, afraid that any movement but the constant turning of the thunderbolt in his hands would see him lose control completely._

"_She's still alive," Hera says, her voice carefully controlled, but not quite enough to hide the icy fury underneath. "Alive and human. You should thank me."_

_"What have you done to her?" Zeus asks, spinning the lightning bolt faster and faster._

_"Nothing really," Hera says, "I just gave her something to think about, that's all."_

_Zeus finally looks up to meet her eyes, and hears a small clap of thunder as his control slips momentarily. "Why?" He asks._

_"Why? Because she needs to know what she's getting herself into."_

_"No. Why do you do this?"_

_"You honestly don't know?" Hera asks. "Zeus, I know how you feel right now."_

_Zeus shakes his head. "You have no idea." He turns his gaze back to the thunderbolt in his hands._

_"I do. I know _exactly_ how this feels. Do you want to know how?" He does not reply. "I love you, Zeus. Believe me, I wish I did not. But I do, and every time you spurn me for a mortal, every time you cast me aside, I wish I could stop loving you, because then this wouldn't hurt. And now you love this mortal girl, and you know you are going to lose her. Well, Zeus, that's how I've felt for the past millennia. Don't tell me I don't understand how you feel." She wipes angrily at a tear, almost too quickly for him to see. Almost._

_"But why must you hurt Semele? She is innocent. You do not have to destroy her like this."_

_"I am not the one who hurt her. I am never the one who hurts your mortal playthings. Think about that, Zeus. Because I can guarantee you that's what Semele is doing." And with that she turns and storms out of the room, but not before Zeus can hear the choked sob that escapes her as she opens the door._

* * *

For the first time since meeting Zeus in the river that first day, Semele is confused. The story Hera told, and the things she said, are still running through Semele's mind, try as she might to push them away. She does not want to doubt, does not want to destroy this one fragment of pure happiness in her life. She knows Hera's stories are true, but she wants to believe that she is different, that the past means nothing.

But then there is also the suggestion Hera made, or hinted at. It threads its way through her thoughts as well, much less intrusive but much more difficult to block out. And despite herself, Semele begins to consider.

* * *

_More than anything, Zeus wants to go to Semele, to see her, tell her that everything he has told her is true. But he knows he cannot, knows that he must wait until she calls for him. He has made a promise to her. So he waits, knowing that she may never want to speak to him again, but knowing just as well that it would be within her right._

_He has not spoken to Hera, and she makes no attempt to approach him. At times he finds himself running through their last conversation._

I love you, Zeus. I wish I could stop loving you_. He thinks of the infinite loneliness in Semele's eyes, the immortal pain in Hera's. The defeated surrender in the last look Leda cast him. As his own eyes sparkle with the lightning he fights to hold back, he wonders if he will ever be looked upon with eyes full of happiness, if he will ever stop causing pain._

* * *

Several days after meeting Hera outside the grove beside the river, Semele finds herself walking that direction once again. She has not been here since. Instead she has remained in the temple, performing her chores unthinkingly, numbness permeating her every waking moment. But in her dreams she sees all the possible scenarios, all her possible choices. _He gave me a choice_, she had told Hera. It is time to test that, time to make a choice at last.

She calls his name softly into the still air and is rewarded moments later by the sight of him walking towards her through the trees. She stands as he approaches, and he takes her gently in his arms, kissing her softly by way of greeting. Kissing him, it is so easy to forget everything else, to lose herself in the bliss of being loved by a god. But as he begins to slip the sleeve of her dress off her shoulder, she pulls away.

"Wait," she says. He stops immediately, stepping back to a chaste distance and dropping his hands. His instant response takes her almost by surprise, but she collects her thoughts, takes a deep breath.

"I met Hera," she finally says. He simply nods, but for a moment she glimpses what looks like a flicker of agony in his eyes.

"I know," he says. "Everything she told you is true. As is everything I told you. I am not perfect, Semele – far from it. And I cannot tell you how much I now regret some of what…some of the things she told you about. But I never lied to you. I love you Semele. If you want me to leave, if you never want to see me again…" he pauses for a moment, but then continues, "I will understand. But I need you to know that I love you, and I will do anything in my power to make you happy."

Semele had tried to prepare herself for whatever reply Zeus may give her, but she had not expected this. She struggles against the temptation to throw herself into his arms, struggles to remember what it is that she truly wants.

"Would you show me your true form?" she asks finally in a whisper.

* * *

_It is the last thing he expects her to say, and he is shocked into silence. She is a priestess, she must know the implications of what she is asking._

_"Did Hera tell you to ask this?"_

_"No," she says, a confidence and certainty in her voice that he has never heard before. "She asked me what I want. As did you."_

_"And what is it you want, Semele?" he asks, not even trying to hide the shock and pain her request has sparked within him. "You want to destroy yourself?"_

_"No," she says once again, still with that strange calm confidence. "I want you to love me. As you are. As a god."_

_"You know what happens when a mortal looks upon a god," he says with something approaching desperation. He has promised her, and he will fulfil his promise at any cost. But he never imagined that cost would be her own life._

* * *

"Yes," Semele replies.

"Are you…are you really asking for death?" She can hear the pain in his voice. She does not want to hurt him, she is not like Hera, but she cannot back down now. She has spent her life giving in. This, what she plans to be her last request, she will not concede.

"I am mortal, Zeus," she says. "I have to die. All I am requesting is the manner."

"Don't do this, Semele," he begs. "Please. You have years left of life, don't throw it away because of something Hera said. She told you to question me, didn't she? She told you I cannot be trusted?"

"She told me about Leda." Semele does not mean for her words to hurt, but Zeus's reaction is as though she has slapped him.

"I…I cannot tell you how much I regret that," he says.

"You don't have to," Semele tells him softly, "I believe you. Hera told me not to, you're right. And maybe she was right – she knows far more than I ever will. But I trust you. I am not asking this as evidence of anything."

"Then why?"

"Because you are the only one who has ever given me a choice. And the only one I can trust to fulfil my request."

* * *

_Through the numbness that has settled over him, Zeus begins to understand. He looks into Semele's eyes, the eyes that first captured his attention, that made him vow to make her smile, whatever the cost. Her eyes full of sadness, of a life of loneliness, a life of silent pain. Life has not been easy to you,he thinks._

_"No, it has not," Semele answers softly and Zeus realises he has spoken aloud. And then she begins to tell him her story, the story that put the sadness into her eyes. The story of the birth of a daughter who symbolised shame to her parents, the story of a young girl cast out, taken in by a temple because there was nowhere else for her to go. A girl who lost her virginity long before she met Zeus because there was nothing she could do to prevent it. A girl ostracised for her nostalgia when the other priestesses saw it as ungratefulness for the honour of joining the temple. The story of a girl who faded into the shadows, never once addressed as a friend or confident, never once asked what she wanted, never once given a choice._

_The story of the girl who locked herself away, hid herself deep inside, because what purpose was there of opening herself to the world if the world didn't notice or care._

_The tears she must have been restraining for years now finally come to the surface as she looks at him, pleading._

_"I love you, Semele," he says, tears not far from his own eyes, "I will always love you. Isn't that enough?"_

_"I know. And I love you too. These past few weeks have been the best part of my life, Zeus. I want this time, the time I have spent with you, the time I have been loved, to be my last memories. What else is there for me besides growing old in the temple, obedient and devoted and ignored? I want to die here, with the one person who has ever loved me, in the one place I am alive, the one place I am happy. And I want it to be you that I see as I am ferried across the river – you as you truly are. Please, Zeus, at least give me that."_

_Zeus knows he has lost. He knows that either way he is going to lose Semele forever – either to his brother Hades or to her own apathy and indifference, for if he does not grant her request he knows he will never see her again. So with fading hope, he plays his last card._

_"You're pregnant," he says._

* * *

Zeus's words shock through her like a physical blow, sending her thoughts reeling. It is not something she has accounted for, not something she even considered. For several minutes she is speechless, her mind spinning.

Semele is ready to accept death, more than ready to depart this life she was never truly meant for in a moment of the happiness she has been denied for so many years. But she cannot possibly condemn an unborn child to the same fate. But this child must be a demigod, she realises.

Stronger than an ordinary human. Perhaps strong enough to survive…with Zeus's help.

"Isn't there something you can do?" she asks, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. It is a long time before Zeus finally nods.

* * *

_"I can save your child," Zeus says, wishing he could give another answer because maybe that would make her pause, make her re-think this choice. But he knows she has already made up her mind._

_"Our child," she corrects him._

_"Our child," he agrees, hoping that this child will inherit Semele's eyes – but without the sadness – so she will not be forgotten._

_"I'm really going to lose you, aren't I?" Zeus says finally._

_"You would lose me anyway," she replies softly, as though she can read his thoughts. "Please, Zeus. Do this for me. Let me see you as you truly are, let me die knowing I have been loved by a god."_

_"This is really what you want?" He asks, one last time._

_"Yes."_

_"Then I will fulfil my promise." It hurts him to even speak the words, but he knows it would hurt him more to deny her request. "Close your eyes," he says, and she obeys._

_Zeus hesitates for a fraction of a second more, and then begins to shed his mortal form, calling upon the lightning he controls, channelling its energy as he assumes his true form, thunderbolts sparking at his fingertips. From his storm-coloured eyes he looks at the mortal girl he has fallen in love with, the mortal strong enough to withstand the cruelty life handed her, and still to love. Strong enough to face death with open arms._

_He is not destroying her, he realises suddenly. In granting Semele her last request, he is instead taking a step towards his own redemption. He is not taking her life, but rather giving her the one thing she has been able to request. He is granting her prayers._

_"Open your eyes."_

* * *

She opens her eyes slowly, wondering if she will even get a chance to take in the sight of Zeus in his true form before she bursts into flame.

She gasps as she sees him standing there, the raw power of thunderstorms flickering around him, his eyes full of the wild fury of storm clouds and the wisdom and experience of millennia. As she tries to take in this sight, that no living mortal has ever seen, she feels a warmth begin to grow within her, not an instant burst of flame as she had expected but a slow fire spreading through her, fuelled by – or maybe fuelling – a passion stronger than she has known. She steps forward, closing the distance between them once again. There is fire inside her where he embraces her, his lips against hers are like the electric fire of the lightning, but she feels no pain.

Her clothing falls away, unable to withstand the fire that begins to lick at her hair, her fingertips. Her exposed skin suddenly feels cold in comparison to the searing heat where Zeus touches her. She presses herself against him, kissing him passionately and wrapping her legs around him to rid herself of the cold, and to feel him against her and inside her in what she knows are her last moments. She feels the liquid fire rushing through her veins, begins to see flames flickering around the edges of her vision, feels her grasp on the physical world slipping. She breaks off the kiss for a moment to look up into the eyes of her lover, and speak her last words.

"I love you," she says, smiling up at him as she relinquishes herself to the fire.

* * *

_Zeus feels Semele losing her physical form against him and tries to pull her closer, but she is made almost entirely of incorporeal fire. He feels her lips leave his and stares at her in amazement as she speaks her last words, her face glowing with fire and radiant happiness, smiling as the fire in her eyes overcomes the darkness that once filled them. Zeus has known many beautiful women, but none nearly so beautiful as Semele in her last moments, glowing with love and bliss as she gives herself over to the flames that consume her in a final blinding flash of passion._

_His eyes never leave hers, but in that last instant he fulfils his last promise to her, reaching for the unborn child in her womb, pulling it safely away from the flames that consume its mother._

_"I love you too," he says, as the light that was Semele fades into the gathering dusk, leaving nothing behind but a hardly-formed infant that Zeus stitches into his leg, and a feeling of blissful peace._

* * *

_Eight months later, Zeus looks into the eyes of his son, the eyes he inherited from his mother. And Zeus knows then that this is no ordinary demigod, no almost-human stronger than any mortal, destined to be a hero. Zeus sees in his child's eyes the future of a new god, born of fire and passion, born of a mother who withstood more than any mortal ever could. He sees a god who will one day ignite in others the passionate flames that consumed his mother, that will put fire into the eyes of the mortals he meets._

"Dionysus," Zeus whispers.


End file.
